JUDGES SAY US COURTS ARE SWAMPED

WASHINGTON -- Federal courts are swamped, partly because of Bush
administration get-tough-on-crime policies that lead to more trials, the
head of a federal judges' group said yesterday.

Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit singled out drug and immigration prosecutions along the
US-Mexican border and Attorney General John Ashcroft's order last year
that federal prosecutors should seek the severest charges and penalties.

Federal spending has not come close to keeping pace with the increase
in caseloads prompted by decisions like those, she said following a
meeting of the policy-setting Judicial Conference of the United
States, which she chairs. "More trials take place because of that,
more prosecutions ensue because of their policies," King said. "Our
criminal caseload keeps going up, but our resources go down every year."

Ashcroft's September memo to all 94 US attorneys' offices directed
that plea bargains should only be pursued in limited, specific
circumstances. The policy change was part of Ashcroft's wider attempt
to bring greater uniformity to the federal justice system.

Critics, including some judges, predicted the policy would tie
prosecutors' hands and force more defendants into costly,
time-consuming trials that could have been avoided with a guilty plea.

King gave no specifics about the effect of Ashcroft's directive. A
Justice Department spokesman said it is too soon to tell whether the
policy has increased the workload for courthouses.

"I don't think we should be talking about dollars and cents when we're
talking about making sure that people are being punished appropriately
for their crimes," Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said. In
the year ending Sept. 30, 2003, the number of cases filed in federal
trial courts rose by 5 percent to a record 70,642, and cases filed in
federal appeals courts grew by 6 percent to a record 60,847, federal
court administrators said yesterday.

The federal court system needs a yearly budget increase of 6.5 percent
merely to keep pace with expenses, because of fixed costs such as rent
on courthouses and cost of living raises for employees, King said. But
the budget proposed by President Bush would give the courts only .5
percent more next year, she said. Already, the courts are leaving jobs
unfilled, court administrators said. "We're at the point this year and
next year where we are talking about cutting bone," King said.